It is important for us to get a fresh glimpse of what it means to be a follower of Christ. In today’s society, we have lost our sense of identity. The early church knew who it was, what it believed and why it believed it. In order to see Christianity in a new light, we must reexamine the salvation process. The Postmodern view of salvation is one that tends to shift from the long-held modern view of God’s redemptive power of the cross and a believer’s response to that sacrifice. Postmoderns view salvation as universal. By Christ’s death on the cross, we all are assured salvation. This view comes from the religiously pluralistic society in which we live. It is hard for most postmoderns to believe an all-loving and all-powerful God could send someone to hell for not adopting a certain belief system.

As a result, postmodern evangelicals have adopted new approaches to evangelism. One way is the approach of discipling a person before he or she comes to Christ. This approach allows a person to ask questions and get to know more about God and His love for them and does not pressure them to hurry up and say a prayer. Postmodern evangelicals realize salvation is a process of transformation that begins with putting one’s trust in Christ. Also, once a person comes to Christ, he or she is put in an environment to facilitate growth and spiritual maturity and learn what it means to follow Christ by being immersed within a community of believers to aid in this process.

The main weakness I see is that it could be easy for a person to value the process more than the decision. In reality, it all comes down to a personal decision to accept or reject Christ’s gift of salvation. The process is good in helping people realize their need for Christ, but it should be viewed as a way to help someone through the decision-making process. We also need to help people develop a new thirst and hunger to hear and relate to the story of God.

Narrative theology is a term that refers to the theology that can be learned and applied to one’s life after studying the narrative stories in the Bible. It is a view of theology that finds meaning in the story itself. We can learn about the nature and character of God. The Bible is a relational book. We can see through these narrative stories God’s relationship to us, our relationship to God and our relationships with one another. The Bible stories serve to teach us truth of who God is, and then we have to apply these lessons to our lives. We are supposed to interpret and apply these stories according to the original intentions of the authors of Scripture and not by our own criteria.

I believe the narrative theology really communicates to the postmodern mind. We cannot assume the people to whom we minister every week have any biblical knowledge at all. The narrative approach helps draw them into the great and grand story of God. It is up to us to help them see God has a part for them to play in that story. We have to be careful when using this approach because we do not want to open the door for people to interject their own interpretation of the story. We have to convey the absolute truth contained in those stories without compromising the integrity of the message itself. We need to be the church of the market place. The church needs to get back to a holistic approach as it reaches out to the community in which it finds itself. We need to be able to explain the narratives of the Bible and use them to shine light on universal truth. We also need to tell our own narratives of how God has changed our lives. Our testimony really can help illustrate that God is still in the business of changing lives. The churches that are making the most impact in their communities have achieved a balance between a narrative theology and relational apologetics. The combination of the two is how we are going to help turn the tide of relativism and apathy with the church and the world.